Beyond-screen Interface for Interactive Television

Background The electronic device trend of “being smart” has revolutionized personal hand-held devices, leading to the emergence of smart phones and tablet PCs. The trend has now spread to home entertainment media, resulting in the emergence of interactive TVs (ITVs). The information systems of interactive television are becoming increasingly interactive and complex, and the information is often presented in a highly distracting and inconvenient manner with insufficient display space. In this study, we developed a Beyond-Screen Interface (BSI) wherein the display system extends the physical space of the graphical user interface (GUI) in ITVs using projectors.Method We implemented the BSI prototype by devising a projector and TV set and compared the usability and quality of user experience of BSI with those of ITV user interfaces of conventional styles. For the evaluation, not only the overall usability but also the hedonic/pragmatic quality of user experience and the degree of lean-back experience were measured with subject scale. Observation and user interview were followed to obtain user feedback and insights.Results and Conclusion Our user evaluation implies that BSI can provide a novel experience for using interactive functions in ITV while maintaining user engagement with TV contents like a traditional TV. The extended display system also evoked a wow response. Such positive user experiences of display extension can facilitate the access to various applications and complex information in an ITV viewing context.